The Primitive Shape Tools are new to Adobe Flash CS3. There are two of these new Primitive Tools, the Rectangle Primitive Tool and the Oval Primitive Tool . Adobe uses the word Primitive to mean shapes which characteristics can be edited via the Property Inspector. This means that you can draw a rectangle and then decide to change the roundness of the corners etc. The new Primitive Tools have a purple hue when selected:

New Primitive Tools:

Rectangle Primitive Tool:

Oval Primitive Tool:

With the standard Rectangle Tool your ability to edit is limited. For example if you wished to change the rounded corners you would need to delete your rectangle and re-draw it with the new rounded corners. The original Rectangle and Oval tools are still accessible in Flash CS3. These original shape tools have a blue hue when selected:

Original Shape Tools:

Rectangle Tool:

Oval Tool:

All of these tools are accessible from a drop down menu in the Tools Panel. Access it by holding down your mouse over the current shape tool:

If the Tools Panel is closed, open it: Window > Tools(Ctrl F2)

Accessing the shape tools by holding down the mouse over the current shape tool.

Note: The PolyStar Tool has no Primate version yet. I am not sure why Adobe failed to finish the update but I guess that will be done in the next version?

Click by Click: If you would like to view this tutorial without all the notes: Click by Click